Today there are thousands of individual crypto currencies floating around the market. And we’ve moved well beyond bitcoin.

The total value of all cryptocurrencies managed to top $2.9 trillion, with daily trading volume of over $130 billion, during phases of significant price hikes.

To put it another way, the crypto market has expanded significantly and is now massive. Perhaps not quite as gigantic as Forex.

Crypto newbies can feel overwhelmed just by trying to figure out where to start.

Therefore, I’ve chosen to start with Bitcoin, rather than trying get the reader (YOU) to absorb everything at once. Being confused and overwhelmed does no one no favors.

Since Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, the advancements in technology that made its emergence possible constitute the basis of all others.

To successfully navigate the crypto realm, one must have a firm grasp on Bitcoin’s fundamentals, including what it is, where it originated from, and how it operates.
Learning the fundamental principles of Bitcoin will help you grasp several facets of other cryptocurrencies as well.

As such, it will be much easier for you to understand the rest of the crypto world if you can gain a firm enough handle of Bitcoin to not be bewildered by the topic….which is the point of this article.

I will assume you know nothing about Bitcoin and give you a basic overview to start with.

In a nutshell, what is Bitcoin?

First, let’s break down what Bitcoin is in the most basic terms possible….

Bitcoin is an open-source digital currency designed for transferring value between pseudonymous users.

After being validated by miners employing PoW as the consensus process, all transactions are recorded in a distributed ledger known as a blockchain.

The blockchain can only be updated by adding new blocks (meaning it is append-only), and its hundreds of nodes are kept in sync with one another every 10 minutes via a decentralized peer-to-peer network. The public can access and view all data on the blockchain in real time.

The blockchain is protected against tampering and can’t be altered thanks to cryptographic methods like public-key cryptography, hash functions, and digital signatures.

Did you get all of that?

I kid, I kid!

But kudos to you for not skimming that and reading it all the way through. (You didn’t accidentally skip over it, did you?)

Don’t be apprehensive. And try not to let that information dump put you off, or discourage you.

This is NOT a technical primer; it’s a guide for people who have never heard of Bitcoin.

However, as you can see, there is a lot of technical language in the crypto realm.

Cryptography has a variety of jargon-y phrases which new arrivals are likely to be confused by.

Those interested in learning more about cryptography may feel daunted by the seemingly endless list of acronyms, jargon, and other technical phrases used in the community.

It is essential, however, that you become familiar with certain basic concepts if you wish to fully understand cryptocurrencies and their own distinctive features.

My intention is to lay out (and also clear up) concepts and words that you might not be familiar with at first. But which you will eventually find valuable.

It’s time to demolish any and every jargon we encounter, so you learn to communicate fluently in the crypto community

Oh, and speaking of jargon, there seems to be many discrepancies in the definitions — and applications of these definitions — across the internet.

It is important to me that we develop a shared language based on well-defined terms and concepts.

By doing so, we can guarantee that any jargon or buzzwords utilized “in our class” are being properly applied throughout.

I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to understand the concepts behind all this lovely, silly lingo. How else are we to become proper e-entrepreneurs?

When someone brings up crypto, do you smile nervously or laugh nervously because you have no idea what they’re talking about?

We’re moving past those times now.

Now, once again, Bitcoin.